<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="content" --><HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.23569">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=organizers@laborforsinglepayer.org
href="mailto:organizers@laborforsinglepayer.org">Labor for Single Payer</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=davidjohnson1451@comcast.net
href="mailto:davidjohnson1451@comcast.net">davidjohnson1451@comcast.net</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 02, 2014 2:39 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> At Labor Notes: Organizing Our Way Out of "Labor's
Healthcare Muddle"</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=5 width=580 bgColor=#ffffff
align=center>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TH><A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=S78CY%2Bi%2BPlS%2BNUeWAmT8Vgm6kAQIZRSs"><IMG
title="Labor Campaign" border=0 alt="Labor Campaign" align=left
src="http://www.healthcare-now.org/laborcampaign/laborcampaign.jpg"></A></TH></TR><!---SIDEBAR--->
<TR>
<TD>
<TABLE cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=3 width=140 align=left valign="top"
clear="all">
<TBODY>
<TR style="FONT-SIZE: 9px">
<TD
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: maroon 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: maroon 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: maroon 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: maroon 1px solid">
<P style="COLOR: maroon; FONT-SIZE: 15px"
align=center><STRONG>National Advisory Board</STRONG></P>
<P>Don Berry, President<BR><EM>Maine AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>Jeff Crosby, President<BR><EM>Northshore Labor Council
(MA)</EM></P>
<P>Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director<BR><EM>National Nurses
United</EM></P>
<P>Donna Dewitt, President Emeritus<BR><EM>South Carolina State
AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>Maria Elena Durazo, Exec. Secty-Treasurer<BR><EM>Los Angeles
Federation of Labor</EM></P>
<P>Pat Eiding, President<BR><EM>Philadelphia CLC</EM></P>
<P>Fernando Gapasin<BR><EM>West Central Oregon CLC</EM></P>
<P>Ben Johnson, President<BR><EM>Vermont American Federation of
Teachers (AFT)</EM></P>
<P>Jeff Johnson, President<BR><EM>Washington State Labor
Council</EM></P>
<P>Greg Junemann, President<BR><EM>International Federation of
Professional and Technical Engineers</EM></P>
<P>Bruce Klipple, President<BR><EM>United Electrical Workers,
UE</EM></P>
<P>Tom Leedham, Secty-Treasurer<BR><EM>Teamsters Local 206</EM></P>
<P>George Lovell, President<BR><EM>Vermont AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>Fred Mason, President<BR><EM>Maryland/DC AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>Hugh McVey, President<BR><EM>Missouri State AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>David Newby, President Emeritus<BR><EM>Wisconsin State
AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>Henry Nicholas, President<BR><EM>AFSCME 1199</EM></P>
<P>Tim Paulson, Executive Director<BR><EM>San Francisco CLC</EM></P>
<P>Josh Pechthalt, President<BR><EM>California Federation of
Teachers</EM></P>
<P>Clyde Rivers, Representing<BR><EM>California School Employees
Association</EM></P>
<P>Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, President<BR><EM>NY State Nurses
Assoc.</EM></P>
<P>Steven A. Tolman, President<BR><EM>Massachusetts AFL-CIO</EM></P>
<P>Jos Williams, President<BR><EM>DC Metro CLC</EM></P>
<P>Nancy Wohlforth, Representing<BR><EM>California State
AFL-CIO</EM></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!---BODY--->
<P>Dear David:</P>
<P>When activists from UNITEHERE—the union of hospitality industry
workers—were recently lobbying in Washington DC in an effort to get relief
from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that are
undermining the hard won healthcare coverage of the union's mostly
low-wage membership, they were told by an aide to New Jersey Senator
Menendez that, "Labor needs to regress to the mean."</P>
<P>Of course, under the laws of mathematics, if you only reduce those
factors that exceed a mean, the mean itself constantly adjusts downward.
In that context, another term for "regress to the mean" is "race to the
bottom".</P>
<P>For many workers, the ACA is having that exact effect. UNITEHERE's
recently released report <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=yiNeHYViuNO8NTzC8Aib7Am6kAQIZRSs">Making
Inequality Worse</A> documents how Obamacare, supported by many unions as
a means of leveling the playing field between union and non-union workers,
is having the perverse and opposite effect of increasing inequality.</P>
<P>UNITEHERE is not the only union experiencing buyer's remorse. While
expanding Medicaid and private insurance coverage to many who were
previously uninsured and outlawing some of the most egregious practices of
the private insurance industry, the ACA is also accelerating the
transformation of employment based coverage into a defined contribution
system. Delegates to last year's AFL-CIO Convention outlined many of these
concerns <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=h8b4QpYCBcjYy6BqCMW99Am6kAQIZRSs">in
a resolution</A> that was passed unanimously.</P>
<P>Part of the problem stems from Republican intransigence in refusing to
consider even technical adjustments to the ACA that would correct
oversights and errors in the original Bill. But the bigger problem resides
in the fact that the ACA was deliberately designed to continue to treat
healthcare as a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace and
primarily delivered through employment-based private insurance plans. No
amount of technical adjustments can fix that problem.</P>
<P>In the section entitled "Labor's Healthcare Muddle", Steve Early's new
book, <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=uHf8a3i%2Bn7mrchGhEgYXVA13rc6MIvsd"><EM>Save
Our Unions</EM></A> documents how we got into this mess. Unlike unions in
almost every other industrialized country, in the years following World
War II labor made a fateful decision to move away from the social
insurance model of healthcare reform that would have made it a birthright
for everyone in America. Their focus shifted to bargaining for healthcare
as a benefit of employment. These union-negotiated benefits then set the
pattern for many millions more of non-union workers.</P>
<P>Defining healthcare as a benefit, not a right, made workers and their
families vulnerable whenever their employment situation changed. Worse,
since the healthcare security of all working families ultimately relied on
a fragile system of collective bargaining maintained for some workers,
everyone was in danger of losing everything if unions were weakened or
busted.</P>
<P>And that's exactly what happened to millions of workers and their
families beginning in the anti-labor onslaught in the 1980's. As unions
were weakened, they were no longer able to set the standards for wages and
benefits for the entire working class and non-union workers had their
healthcare benefits reduced to ever-lower levels while unions circled the
wagons to protect their own hard-won benefits.</P>
<P>This created a perception that unions were only interested in
preserving their own bloated benefit packages at the expense of everyone
else. In addition, the treatment of healthcare as a commodity, delivered
through access to private insurance, led to a price explosion as
profiteers moved in and created massive inefficiencies up and down the
system, leading to healthcare costs in the U.S. that are two and one half
times greater than the <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RUoSlPxdfi8hcFBJl7IPWQm6kAQIZRSs">OECD
average</A>. For some low wage workers, the annual cost of private family
healthcare insurance is now greater than their annual income.</P>
<P>Early also dissects labor's involvement in the struggles over the
Affordable Care Act and its subsequent impact on collective bargaining
(see also our briefing paper, <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NFEkhOd7MOLrJnE6grplHwm6kAQIZRSs">10
Things Unions Need To Look Out for When Bargaining Under Obamacare</A>).
He maintains that these consequences were predictable and were ignored by
most unions at the time as they embraced an American Enterprise Institute
model of healthcare reform and engaged in a cycle of bargaining against
themselves that any shop steward could have predicted was doomed to
failure.</P>
<P>The "regression to the mean" that UNITEHERE focuses on in their report
will only get worse. In 2018, the "Cadillac Tax" will take effect. It's
basic design will ensure that nearly every union-negotiated healthcare
plan in the country will eventually be subject to an unaffordable 40%
excise tax unless they cut their own benefits to the bone. The Boeing
Corporation has already demanded and won a contract provision that workers
and retirees will pay <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=pEBOecya9jKo07oeIPpilQm6kAQIZRSs">100%
of any future tax</A>.</P>
<P>The times are long past when the labor movement can seek to bargain and
maintain healthcare benefits that are far superior to those enjoyed by the
rest of the working class. Right wing politicians have figured out how to
exploit these disparities to promote a politics of resentment. These
attacks have been a huge component of the anti-union campaigns in
Wisconsin, Michigan and elsewhere. And they provide the basis for the
assault on public workers everywhere.</P>
<P>As Early points out, "If organized labor settles for piecemeal changes
and refuses to challenge the link between medical insurance and
employment, it will miss the chance to connect with millions of poorly
insured and uninsured workers who have no union." This is the crucial
challenge for the U.S. labor movement. We cannot move backwards. The only
way to guarantee healthcare for every worker is to guarantee healthcare
for all through a single-payer Medicare for All program.</P>
<P>This weekend, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer will join hundreds of
union organizers and activists at the <A
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=f0NSwPQ5lFpCVW9p41Ivcgm6kAQIZRSs">Labor
Notes Conference</A> in Chicago. If you are attending the Conference,
please visit us at our table in the Exhibition Hall and plan to attend one
of our healthcare workshops and meetings.</P>
<P>The slogan of the Labor Notes conference is "Putting the movement back
in the labor movement." We will be there to add our voice to this effort
because we know that only a revitalized labor movement can help to
organize our way out of this healthcare muddle.</P>
<P>In Solidarity,<BR>Mark Dudzic<BR>National Coordinator</P></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<TABLE
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: maroon 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: maroon 1px solid"
cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=2 width=560 align=center valign="bottom">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD colSpan=4 align=middle><STRONG>LCS-P National Steering
Committee</STRONG></TD></TR>
<TR style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; FONT-SIZE: 9px">
<TD width=100>
<P>Wayne Bayer, Vice President<BR>New York State Public Employees
Federation</P>
<P>Paul Bigman<BR>IATSE Local 15</P>
<P>Michael Bilbrey<BR>President, CSEA</P>
<P>Donna Cartwright<BR>Pride @ Work, AFL-CIO</P>
<P>Al Cholger<BR>USW Sub-District Dir., Detroit</P>
<P>Jeff Crosby, President<BR>Northshore MA CLC</P>
<P>Donna Dewitt, President Emeritus<BR>South Carolina State
AFL-CIO</P>
<P>Jed Dodd, General Chair<BR>Pennsylvania Federation
BMWED/IBT</P></TD>
<TD width=100>
<P>Mark Dudzic<BR>USW & Labor Party</P>
<P>Sandy Eaton<BR>MA Nurses Assoc.</P>
<P>Jon Flanders<BR>Troy Area Labor Council</P>
<P>Bill Gibbons<BR>USW Regional Dir (Ret)</P>
<P>Don Giljum<BR>IUOE Local 148</P>
<P>Bill Henning<BR>Activist, NYC</P>
<P>Peter Knowlton, President<BR>New England, UE</P>
<P>Martha Kuhl, Treasurer<BR>National Nurses United (CA)</P>
<P>Paul Kumar, Political Director<BR>NUHW</P></TD>
<TD width=100>
<P>Traven Leyshon, President<BR>Green Mountain Labor Council</P>
<P>Martha Livingston<BR>United Univ. Professions, AFT Lo 2190</P>
<P>James McGee<BR>Transit Employees H & W Fund, ATU</P>
<P>Lew Moye, President<BR>St. Louis CBTU</P>
<P>David Newby, President Emeritus<BR>Wisconsin State AFL-CIO</P>
<P>Elizabeth O'Connor<BR>Maine AFL-CIO</P>
<P>Rodney Orr, Political Director<BR>UPTE/CWA9119</P>
<P>Lenny Potash<BR>Labor United for Universal Healthcare</P>
<P>Clyde Rivers<BR>CSEA</P></TD>
<TD width=100>
<P>Susan Reardon<BR>Pennsylvania Federation BMWED/IBT</P>
<P>Jean Ross, Co-President<BR>National Nurses United (MN)</P>
<P>Jim Savage, President<BR>USW Local 10-1</P>
<P>Robert Score, Rec-Secty<BR>IATSE Local 1</P>
<P>Mike Sullivan<BR>Assoc. of Western Pulp & Paper Workers</P>
<P>Marva Wade<BR>NY State Nurses Assoc.</P>
<P>John Walsh<BR>IBEW</P>
<P>Jos Williams, President<BR>DC Metro CLC</P>
<P>Nancy Wohlforth<BR>California State
AFL-CIO</P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<TABLE
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(227,227,227) 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(227,227,227) 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: rgb(227,227,227) 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: rgb(227,227,227) 1px solid"
cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=2 width=480 align=center valign="bottom">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD bgColor=#ffffff>
<P align=center>The Labor Campaign for Single-Payer survives on the
generosity of our supporters.<BR><A
style="COLOR: maroon; FONT-SIZE: 17px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=JOT0%2FSLJw4aD1XzF8qaskQm6kAQIZRSs">Please
consider making a donation</A>.</P>
<P align=center><A style="COLOR: maroon"
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Al9t%2BWUlgLn0nn8BSNC3nAm6kAQIZRSs">www.LaborForSinglePayer.org</A>
| <A style="COLOR: maroon"
href="mailto:organizers@laborforsinglepayer.org">organizers@laborforsinglepayer.org</A></P>
<P align=center>You have received this email through your
subscription to LCS-P's email list. If you did not subscribe, or
would no longer like to receive email updates <A
style="COLOR: maroon"
href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2Fh5%2BIJ6BfhRebB8VhS6kogm6kAQIZRSs">unsubscribe
here.</A></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><IMG
src="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/TrackImage?key=1832055127" width=1
height=1><DIAEMAILID='1832055127' thread="375702" />
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><A href="http://www.salsalabs.com/?email"><IMG
border=0 alt="empowered by Salsa"
src="https://hq.salsalabs.com/salsa/images/Salsa-empowered-bug_RGB45px.png"></A></DIV></BODY></HTML>